The course is intended for students who wish to expand their verbal expression through exposure to literary concepts, analysis, and terminology. Students will read samples from significant works taken from Italian literature in conjunction with passages from the canon of Italian literary criticism. Students will practice their critical and writing skills by applying the concepts learned during the course to the reading and analysis of literary texts, and will begin to appreciate the difference between comprehension and interpretation, and commentary and criticism.

Readings will include works by Francesco d’Assisi, Jacopo da Lentini, Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcanti, Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Ludovico Ariosto, Niccolò Machiavelli, Gaspara Stampa, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Giovan Battista Marino, Galileo Galilei.

Students will attend every class and arrive on time for all class sessions. They will keep up with assigned readings and with any out of class assignments. They will turn in assignments promptly.

Five points will be deducted from each assignment that is not turned in on time for each day it is late.

Upon completing this course students will:

a) master the traditionally defined Italian literary canon within the scope of this course.

b) learn concepts and theories in the subject of Italian Literary Studies.

c) understand the literary language, key texts, and the social, political and cultural context in which Italian literature developed.

d) develop skills in the interpretation and analysis of Italian literature, as well as develop the critical-thinking skills necessary to provide a creative interpretation of a literary text.

e) improve reading and writing skills in Italian.